The nation’s top transportation officials want to see all new cars, trucks and crossovers equipped with Vehicle-to-Vehicle, or V2V, communications systems within five years, technology that Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Tuesday could help “avoid or mitigate” as much as 80% of the crashes that occur on U.S. highways.

The proposed guidelines, FMVSS 150, now will be the subject of a 90-day public comment period. Foxx said he expects the rules to be formally locked in place a year later. That would mean that at least 50% of the passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. would be equipped with V2V transceivers by the middle of the 2020 model-year, with 100% compliance by 2022.

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“It has been estimated that up to 80% of non-impaired collisions could be avoided or mitigated to reduce injuries” with the widespread use of V2V technology, said Sec. Foxx, who also said the Department of Transportation will now consider the possibility of requiring V2V systems on commercial trucks, as well.

While traditional attributes, like good fuel economy, remain important to American auto shoppers, the focus is shifting. Buyers are putting more and more emphasis on high-tech safety features and looking forward to a wave of new autonomous technologies coming to market in the near future, according to a new study.

Nissan, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and General Motors all have announced plans to begin rolling out semi-autonomous features, starting in 2016, and Tesla just began remotely updating its Model S sedans to use its AutoPilot system, which permits hands-free driving on well-marked, limited-access highways. But a second study says it’s a new entrant to the automotive world, tech giant Google, that has taken the lead in self-driving technology.

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“No other company has as much relevant technology to advance autonomous driving software,” says Egil Juliussen, PhD., senior research director at IHS Automotive and author of one of the new reports. “Google is in a unique position to provide the software and map infrastructure to allow mobility services to anyone — via fleets of driverless cars — within a decade or less.”

Auto braking is now commonplace on high-end vehicles like the new BMW 750i, but will soon be on most vehicles at all price points.

Ten major vehicle manufacturers from the U.S., Europe and Japan have jointly agreed to make automatic emergency braking systems standard on all their future vehicles.

An advanced form of forward collision warning systems that have already been shown to significantly reduce crashes, have already begun to migrate from high-end luxury models to more mainstream products and a number of automakers already offer auto braking technology as optional equipment. But the announcement means it would become all but ubiquitous.

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The move appears to allow the auto industry to take the lead in rolling out auto braking systems, rather than waiting for the federal government to mandate the technology, as had been widely anticipated. At an event in Ruckersville, Virginia today, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief Mark Rosekind said the agreement puts the rollout of the technology on the “fast track,” calling it “life-saving technology that everyone should have.”

Ford workers prepare a mannequin for testing the maker's new pedestrian alert system.

Once available only on a handful of the most expensive luxury models, a growing number of vehicles, including mainstream and even economy models, now offer forward crash warning systems. That means better protection for passengers and improved safety ratings for manufacturers.

For the first time ever, more than half of all new cars, trucks and crossovers offer standard or optional forward crash warning systems, according to a new report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. And a quarter of all new vehicles take things a step further with warning systems that can automatically apply the brakes, if necessary.

Mini showed the biggest improvement overall, thanks to the new Cooper hardtop.

When it comes to adding new high-tech hardware to their vehicles, automakers are generating a mix of both praise and complaints, according to a new study by J.D. Power and Associates.

On the whole, new vehicle buyers have rated their 2015 models higher than ever, and Power’s 20th annual APEAL study gives a chunk of the credit to the latest safety technologies, such as blind-spot monitoring and forward collision warning systems. At the same time, motorists registered a number of complaints about faulty infotainment hardware and balky voice recognition systems.

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With rare exception, automakers saw their APEAL scores improve this year, the overall average rising to 798 points out of a possible 1,000. But the Korean makers collectively posted the biggest improvements, while the Japanese lagged behind the industry on the whole.

Automakers are turning to high-tech solutions to address both high- and low-tech distracted driving issues.

In an era where everything from text messages to sliding briefcases to spilled coffee and crying babies can distract a driver, one of the biggest jobs of automotive engineers is to help find a way to to keep a motorist’s attention focused on the road.

With federal safety regulators estimating that more than one in 10 U.S. highway fatalities results from distracted driving, many states are beginning to crack down with laws that limit the use of hand-held cellphones and texting while behind the wheel. But there’s a growing interest in using high-technology solutions to battle against distracted driving.

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Carmakers are deploying a variety of strategies, including the wider use of voice commands that will allow a driver to change stations or request directions to a specific location. Head-up displays that put information, such as vehicle speed, on the windshield are also becoming more common. HUD is available on a number of high-line products, including the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette, and at the other extreme, on the new Mazda3, while Mini plans to roll the technology out on a wide range of models.